Assault And Battery: An Emerging Trend in Employer/Employee Litigation
Michael Elkon’s article entitled “Assault and Battery: An Emerging Trend in Employer/Employee Litigation,” was published by Society For Human Resource Management.
Human resource professionals and business executives are accustomed to dealing with employee claims of illegal harassment. But in recent years, lawyers representing employees have begun filing an increasing number of assault and battery claims based on the same alleged conduct that gives rise to harassment claims, Michael wrote.
While just about any HR manager can give a layman’s definition of a “hostile work environment,” can HR managers provide a legal definition for the term “assault”? This has become an important new concept for managers to learn in supervising employees and ensuring that the workplace is not a breeding ground for litigation, he explained.